Multidimensional Force Sensors Based on Triboelectric Nanogenerators for Electronic Skin

The ability to detect multidimensional forces is highly desired for electronic skin (E-skin) sensors. Here, based on single-electrode-mode triboelectric nanogenerators (S-TENGs), fully elastic E-skin that can simultaneously sense normal pressure and shear force has been proposed. With the hemispherical curve-structure design and further structural optimization, the pressure sensor exhibits a high linearity and sensitivity of 144.8 mV/kPa in the low-pressure region. By partitioning the lower tribolayer into two symmetric parts, a multidimensional force sensor has been fabricated in which the output voltage sum and ratio of the two S-TENGs can be used for normal pressure and shear force sensing, respectively. When the multidimensional force sensors are mounted at a two-fingered robotic manipulator, the change of the grabbing state can be recognized, indicating that the sensor may have great application potential in tactile sensing for robotic manipulation, human-robot interactions, environmental awareness, and object recognition.